Appeals Court Won’t Stay Upcoming Alabama Execution

MONTGOMERY, Alabama. A federal appeals court on Tuesday refused to stay the execution of an Alabama man convicted in the beating deaths of an elderly couple during a 2004 robbery.

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied two separate requests to stay the execution of Jamie Ray Mills, 50. Mills is scheduled to be sentenced to death by lethal injection Thursday night in Alabama.

Mills was convicted of capital murder for the 2004 killings of Floyd and Vera Hill in Guinea, a small town located about 80 miles northwest of Birmingham. Prosecutors said Mills and his wife went to the couple’s home, where he used a hammer, a tire tool and a machete to beat and stab the couple before stealing $140 and prescription medication.

The three-judge panel denied requests for stays in two different cases. One case argued that newly discovered evidence proved that prosecutors hid a plea deal with Mills’ wife to get her to testify against her husband. The others challenged aspects of the state’s lethal injection protocol.

Angie Setzer, senior attorney at the Equal Justice Initiative, which represents Mills, said she is disappointed in the rulings and will appeal. Setzer said the cases show “the State’s deceit and concealment both in the trial of Mr. Mills and with regard to the executions.”

Lawyers for the initiative in April asked a federal judge to reopen the case, arguing that newly discovered evidence proved prosecutors lied about having a plea deal with Mills’ wife, who provided key testimony against him at trial. JoAnn Mills’ defense attorney signed a statement saying the district attorney agreed that “he would not pursue the capital charge and would agree to a murder plea” if she testified at her husband’s trial. After testifying, JoAnn Mills pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of murder and was sentenced to life in prison.

The state maintains there was no plea deal and has presented its own statements from the district attorney and his investigator.

U.S. District Judge Scott Coogler ruled that Mill’s argument was raised too late and did not prove that the conviction was obtained through fraud or misconduct.

Mills’ lawyers sought a “certificate of appeal” for the 11th Circuit to address the issue. Chief Judge William Pryor, in ruling in favor of the state, wrote that they did not meet the required legal threshold because “no reasonable jurist could conclude that the district court abused its discretion.” The appeals court then denied the stay request.

Circuit Judge Nancy G. Abudu agreed with the decision, but wrote that she was concerned that the rigid interpretation of the rules in death penalty cases prevented further exploration of the issue.

“Unfortunately, even when a petitioner’s life is at stake, our jurisprudence does not extend sufficient procedural and substantive due process protections,” Abudu wrote.

Floyd Hill, 87, died from blunt and cutting injuries to the head and neck, and Vera Hill, 72, died from complications of traumatic brain injury about 12 weeks after the crime, the attorney general’s office wrote in a court filing . A jury voted 11-1 to recommend a judge-imposed death sentence for Jamie Mills.